There’s a lot to be said about the preemption issues raised by state health insurance mandates and the assumptions that underlie the beliefs of those who argue that ERISA preemption should not be allowed to prevent states from experimenting with acts intended to remedy the problem of the uninsured. Articles like this one here,
Health Insurance
The Ninth Circuit on the San Francisco Health Insurance Mandate Ordinance
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in Health Insurance, Preemption
Workplace Prof has the story here of a three judge panel out of the Ninth Circuit staying the district court ruling that the San Francisco ordinance mandating the provision of health insurance by employers was preempted, and provides a link to the ruling. I second the surprise he describes in his post over the…
ERISA Preempts Another One: Striking Down the San Francisco Ordinance
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in Health Insurance, Preemption
Well, I have talked before about dog bites man stories, and here’s another one. The United States District Court for the District of Northern California has now ruled that San Francisco’s ordinance requiring certain health care expenditures by employers was preempted by ERISA. The Workplace Prof sums up the ruling here, although he is wrong…
California, Fair Share Acts and Preemption: Have We Learned Anything At All?
By Stephen Rosenberg on
I’ve got a few things lined up this week to talk about, running from long term disability benefits litigation to avoiding ERISA litigation to subprime mortgages, but first I am going to veer off of my planned course to pass along and comment on a pair of interesting posts that showed up in my in-box…
State Mandates and Health Insurance Pricing
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Well now, this morning I came across this interesting post here, on the State Policy Blog, comparing health insurance pricing in one semi-unregulated state insurance market (Colorado) and in a state, Massachusetts, with a state mandate requiring health insurance. As you can see from the post, the numbers show pricing is significantly higher…
High Health Care Costs and the Impact on Fair Share Acts
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Okay, I mentioned on Friday that I had come across some other interesting blogs and sites over the last few weeks that I wanted to pass along, and that I would do so over the next few days. I jumped off track on doing that right off the bat with this morning’s post on insurance…
Pay or Play Acts: There’s No Free Lunch
By Stephen Rosenberg on
I have written before that the underlying structural problem with fair share and similar acts, like the Massachusetts Health Care Reform Act, that seek to mandate the provision of health insurance by employers is twofold: first, they play at the margins of a problem that is fundamentally about the base economics of health care…
One View on What’s Wrong With the Massachusetts Health Care Reform Act
By Stephen Rosenberg on
In yesterday’s post on Darren Abernethy’s paper on Fair Share statutes, I ended up riffing on the question of whether the Maryland legislature, by putting before the courts a particularly bad version of such a statute, had distorted the development of the law of ERISA preemption in a manner that would only hurt the cause…
Preemption of Fair Share Acts: Did the Maryland Legislature Manage to Set The Whole Issue Back a Thousand Years?
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Here is Darren Abernethy’s law review note on preemption of state fair share acts that mandate that employers provide certain levels of health insurance. His note, which I have discussed before, is very well done, and Darren has generously allowed me to share it here in full. As readers may recall from earlier posts,…
One Proposal for Enacting Fair Share Legislation While Simultaneously Avoiding ERISA Preemption
By Stephen Rosenberg on
We previously mentioned William and Mary law student Darren Abernethy’s upcoming law review note presenting ideas on how to enact so-called fair share legislation – which attempts to obligate employers to provide certain levels of health insurance coverage – without running afoul of ERISA preemption. His note is now out, and those of you who,…